I don't think they want us, K. They just want Zeiss and whoever might be working with him. I think the Fairy is all they can confirm, and probably me, since we're the only other people they saw near where Zeiss was captured, acting in a suspicious manner.

Okay, so they are holding him in a tank convoy and they're not moving. Let's keep investigating. Which tank? Maybe he's somewhere behind the tanks, maybe you should get to a higher angle to see where he is exactly? How do we get inside the tank? Can we impede the convoy by disabling the wheels of the first tank? Can black magic be used to create a door to the inside of a tank(fireballs, lighting)? What else is there besides the tanks? Are there any soldiers around? What are they equipped with? What can we exploit?

Well if Zeiss and Advoc are as close as I think they are, they've come within keeping-smart distance, so Zeiss, if you want, you can feed Advoc what you've learned and "be" Advoc with his full mental capacity retained.

What they want is someone to put the blame on for the death of that Aluvian guy. We hardly fit the part but it's all they've got. If they dreamed we had been involved, they'd have snatched us up immediately, but they didn't.

Another thing, is that Zeiss's face was recognized by some random couple of bystanders on the street, not 60 seconds after the military had barged into that inn. Not only did the military know his face, people on the street knew his face. Immediately.

That last part just makes no sense to me, but if i assume it DOES make sense, and Zeiss became famous in the blink of an eye, even to random Joe strolling down the sidewalk, the military guarding the installation in which Zeiss and Javan are being held WOULD know our faces, if they were known at all.

So yeah, that little tidbit means as much to me as the armored vehicles. Means more to me, since our chances of springing them out head on against a detachment of the frigging Sho army were already suicidal, tanks or no tanks.

Under my guidance, the Exchange has absorbed two other Blocs. The leader of the Runners is a famous aluvian politician who has been around for a couple of centuries; and now, him and his subordinates are under my command. I conquered the Slates with an army composed of ill equipped refugees who, on top of that, were outnumbered two to one. Moreover, the Exchange has helped the survivors of the disaster that was the Mana Storm. Add to that the fact that I am Lady Lightmane's direct subordinate, the Lord of the continent's biggest city. I also might have tasked some people to spread the word within the Exchange that Zeiss of Wintersong is the big boss, which must have come with a vague description of my likeness. Oh, I almost forgot : the Exchange's emblem is of Zeiss' design.

I'm just famous K. Don't think too much about it.

*evil laugh*:

In all seriousness, I'm not that surprised that some people are starting to recognize me. I certainly made sure the Exchange's employees would. I was also under the impression the soldiers gave my description to the citizens so that they could recognize me. As for me and Javan being prison, I know Arch would not put us in a no-win scenario. You guys escaped from the Tumeroks' army; you can escape a few soldiers.

You should consider the possibility that the Sho military either want to move us very soon or we have been put in the middle of the street to serve as bait. Or both.

If it remember, it was "Hey, isn't that the guy the army was after?", not "Hey, isn't it that super famous warlord guy from Aluvia that conquered a bunch of stuff?"

Of course i'm not gonna take Joe the Bystander's opinion as fact on this matter, but i am gonna think about. How much is too much depends on perspective, i guess.

As for the answer to your post in IC, honestly, Higaide would just say ".............". But i'm gonna elaborate on that "..........." so as to make it a bit less dry.

We've obviously not a chance to spring them out of there, even if we did have the whole party here. On the other hand given the catastrophic political pressure there must be on the Sho right now to process Zeiss and Javan in some way, i very much doubt Kinhz's influence will do a thing towards releasing them. On the other hand, the Sho may choose to cover this up rather than prosecuting, or attempt some other scheme in order to make this whole incident more manageable, in which case Zeiss and Javan are either locked up forever or dead, or some other terminally untoward fate i cant discern right now. So it's obviously a complicated matter.

EDIT: I managed to write something more substantial than a bunch of dots. It's still a messy situation.

There was no time to throw up wanted posters all over town, they clearly weren't aiming for informing the public, but we should be first thinking of who knows Zeiss' face, rather than who shouldn't. It's possible that the citizen was one of a few members of Vyeotians placed in the inn's region to serve as a human alarm. Nobody will follow after a dog barking(some people would like to kick it), but soldiers on an arrest will investigate someone shouting "he's over here!"

As for the Light emanating from the Light aspect, I think I have a solution. Could we put clothes on him to dim the light? We wouldn't be able to cover him completely, but we could reduce the penalty to something more manageable, after all Zeiss threw a lot of points into his Stealth.

1: wait and see what happens to Zeiss and Javan2: take our chances with proving Zeiss and Javans' innocence to Khinz'Lizakh in order to get help from his contacts and resources to free our friends in exchange for the mirror3: prove their innocence to clear Khinz'Lizakh's conscience in dealing with us so that we can exchange the mirror for his support of the Exchange and maybe a little help on the side to free our friends, and if not just go for it anyway.

This is all pending what K and Advoc do next. Here's a thought, why not just have Higaide investigate alone? Advoc can just stay where he is, he's got good Summoner reception where he is. Higaide is stealthy. He's not glowy. He's got a smokebomb maybe. Zeiss, can we get an inventory check on how many we have left?

The deal with was to give Khinz'Lizakh the mirror so that he would agree to trade his food with the Exchange. Just pointing that out in case any of you forgot the details.

I also didn't take note of your inventory guys. Zeiss had one, which means my captors have it. Probably.

And I do think it would be preferable if you guys tried to save us by using Khinz'Lizakh's contacts, even if the soldiers take us away from Kinshoi. In any case, you guys decide. I'm fully prepared to lose my character if things go wrong. *fingers crossed*

It was 3 hours to Weave 5 smokebombs for 1 cxp, and Kolson decided to spend 2, for a total of 10. We are definitely stocked.

Zeiss took one and Kolson used one. Kolson had 2 in his inventory before Weaving, so because he still does I think it's safe to say that's minus another smokebomb from the 10 Weaved. So out of those of us not captured, we have 8 smokebombs.

I'm just going to go ahead and claim one of those. The smokebomb pool is down to 7. Excuse me, Javan pointed out more uses, so we're down to 4. I think Kolson is allowing people to liberally take what they need(scout's honor and all that), so Higaide if you want to say you took 2 in prep for this sleuthing you're currently doing, I'd say feel free.

Because that would mean you'd be more likely to do a solo Monk mission. You know you want!

While we're there, just like to say, finally glad to have remembered and taken the time to equip my grapple gauntlets. I gave 'em a funny OOC joke name. I'll change it later for serious, though.

Last edited by Rory on Thu Oct 02, 2014 10:10 pm; edited 1 time in total

Javan used one while trying to disable that cannon (which was an action meant to keep other party members from further taking cannon shots on their face, which included the soon to be retreating Zeiss. There we go Arch, after all this time, now you know why), someone used a smoke bomb on the Inn, and I'm pretty sure Zeiss used at least one during his capture. So mark down at least another 3 smoke bombs.

Juts though i'd point out, proving our innocence to Khinz is a moot point. Not only is he not the military or the cops, he likely hardly cares entirely. Not only that, anyone with half a brain will put together that we couldn't have possibly done this, but again, that's also a moot point. It doesn't matter that we didn't do it, in face of the humongous political gravity this murder represents.

The Sho have to present SOMEONE to Alluvia that will take the blame for this. If they try to cover it up, i'm sure the Pinnacle or Vyeotians or whoever it was that's pushing the continent into war will find a way to make it blow up in their faces. If they try to give Alluvia a better lie that the truth... that may work to some degree, but then Zeiss and Javan are likely never seeing the light of day again.

The only way this thing can be settled, IMHO, is if the Sho get a higher value suspect that the ones they have now. Someone they can tell Alluvia "It was them!", and have Alluvia accept it. My idea of trying to find the culprit was never about proving our innocence per-se (although that's a welcome and unavoidable byproduct). Finding the culprit was always for the purpose of giving the Sho a viable suspect to answer Alluvia with.

For me, the purpose to finding the culprits was to cut off some of their limbs, change the disposition of their organs and maybe weave some device into their bodies that would cause brutal and eternal pain. But I guess just killing them would do.

Still, since nobody answered me in the main thread, I'll ask the question here : is everyone okay with skipping forward through time?

I wouldn't mind skipping, but we still need to recover that rapier. I doubt we can find any of the actual people who framed you, btw, Zeiss. It'd be great if we could, but i'd honestly settle for some material evidence, anything that would make the case that this assassination was enacted by a third party. From there, we have enough IC experience to construe the motive and likely suspects, and given the taste of consequence we already had at Marblebush, and the fear both Powers have got to have of open war, just maybe we can get you guys off the hook. And save the continent in the process.

Btw, i'm considering the possibility that that attack of theirs over at Bonebreaker's might've been a deliberate provocation to draw us over here.

Kolson was okay with retrieving that rapier if we finished our little recon first, so we can do that now. But since you're the one who really wants to get it back, you call the shots : how much time do you want to invest on this before giving up? who will you bring? who will do the swimming?

Advoc will accept following you if you ask him. Rory wanted to come, but I think it would be unwise to leave Kolson alone. Also, do not forget that you need to rest before tomorrow's meeting. After the details are taken care of, just write your actions in the main thread.